Page 110 - RusRPTOct20

Shvetsov and Olga Skorobogatova, Chief Auditor Valery Goreglyad, and head of the main department for the Central Federal District Nadezhda Ivanova with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Deputy Finance Minsiter Vladimir Kolychev, and an independent director – Mikhail Kovalchuk, president of the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute.
● Metal & Mining
BCS Global Markets on September 1 has included the shares of Novolipetsk Metallurgical Kombinat​ (NLMK) metals major into the basket of Top 5 dividend paying names, ​with an estimated dividend yield of 10.2%, while excluding Sberbank state-controlled bank and MTS mobile major as their 12-monthDYswentbelow9%.Asreportedby​bneIntelliNews,​ inpartthanks to their high dividends, ​Russian equities in 2019 were the best performing in the world​. The Dividend Basket of BCS GM is now offering 11.4% DY and consists of Norilsk Nickel and NLMK metals majors, Unipro utility major, Federal Grid company and preferred shares of oil dinosaur Surgutneftegas. The Basket "continues to lag the market on the post-COVID bounce, weighed most by the relative performance of SurgutNG preferred shares and Norilsk Nickel, while Sberbank preferred shares and MTS were the top performers recently," BCS GM commented. With the addition of NLMK, the average 12-month DY for the Basket has climbed back above 11% this month, marking the first increase in the Basket’s yield since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in February, BCS GM analysts note, believing that the Basket has a good chance to perform strongly into the end of the year.
Russian independent gas producer​ ​Novatek​ may consider higher dividends already for 2020, ​Director of the investors relations department Alexander Nazarov said on September 29 reports Prime. “While many international companies reduced or even cancelled dividends, we continued to pay them and last week announced an important event, lifting of non-financial guarantees on project financing of the Yamal LNG (liquefied natural gas) project, which will allow us to consider higher dividends already for the entire 2020,” he said. Novatek sees itself as an undervalued company, Nazarov added. He also said that the company complies with the schedule of implementation of the Arctic LNG-2 project, whose launch is planned for 2023, and that products made by the fourth stage of the Yamal LNG plant, which is now under construction, will be sold on the spot market after the facility is launched until the end of 2020. Novatek will make a final investment decision on the Obsky LNG plant in 2021, he also said.
The shareholders of Russian coal producer Raspadskaya have approved paying RUB2.7 per share in dividends for January–June, ​the company said on September 29. The record date is October 15. The company said in March 2019 that it could start paying dividends at a net debt/EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) ratio of no more than 2x. The minimum annual payment would amount to $50mn and was to be paid in two tranches worth at least $25mn for the first half of the year and for the entire financial year, Raspadskaya said then. Raspadskaya is part of U.K.-based steel and mining giant Evraz, which operates mainly in Russia.
110 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ October 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com